Let Flexibility Lead To Alignment

I was able to give a thank you speech today at the Convening on Personalized Learning to thank all of those who support my vision of transforming learning in the classroom. It was going to be a longer speech but I am very shy and cut out my little reaction to the misunderstandings that exist around personalized learning. 

I am much braver in print on my blog, so here it goes:

There is no one way to personalize learning for every student. There is no average student. There is no average classroom. There is no average school. So by definition, there is no single template or single tool to personalize for every student, every classroom, or every school. The same wand won’t produce magic for every wizard.

But, we can all have the same goal for our system.  Nudging the locus of control of learning towards the learner. Allowing learners more ownership of learning through connections to the content and ownership over the process.

Personalized Learning is not Laissez Faire learning. It is not a blank check for students to do whatever they want.  Personalized Learning is student driven and standards guided. Courses are still defined by standards. But what standards are you using for your course?

We need to adopt standards that emphasize content skills over content knowledge. These standards need to allow space for learners to make connections to their current and future selves.

I hear colleagues say that they are waiting for the data that shows personalized learning works. The data is already in. We need to communicate the idea that Personalized Learning is built on what science has already shown us about learning. It is a reaction to what the data tells us about learning. It is a reaction to what we know about moving from external sources of motivation to intrinsic sources. It recognizes the importance of personal goal setting, self-reporting, and quality and timely feedback.

To those leaders looking to move toward learner autonomy, it needs to be an opportunity for educators not a mandate.  We can’t ask learners to own their learning but not give educators the same opportunities. I am thankful for having the space to shape my vision for what learning could look like in my classroom.

That being said, it is up to educators to communicate that vision to admin and learners. To get all on the same page. To understand the collective goal and how to get there together.

There will be setbacks and failures everyday. In the face of these failures, we can’t change our goal. We need to commit to our goal. Trust our learners abilities. So that they can trust their own ability to persevere.

In the face of failure, iterate. No one knows your classroom better than the learners in it. That is why student voice is the most important guidance we can receive in revising our practice.

Ownership of learning doesn’t mean learning alone. School is a social environment. We need to prepare learners for a collaborative world by modeling this in our classroom. We need to allow them to learn from and with each other.  

The same goes for the community of educators.  I encourage you to make connections with others and share your learning. This is not Fight Club. This is the learning club and number one rule of learning club is that you talk about the learning.  

I'd like to thank the Institute again for the wonderful honor.